An electronic device, such as a computer, for example, may include conductive traces and/or electronic components mounted on printed circuit boards (PCBs), such as daughter cards, backplanes, midplanes, motherboards, and the like. The PCBs may be interconnected to transfer power and data signals throughout the system. In orthogonal PCB applications, a header connector may be electrically coupled to each side of a midplane circuit board through via holes. The via holes on each side of the midplane may be electrically coupled to one another. The header connector on one side of the midplane may be rotated 90 degrees with respect to the header connector on the opposite of the midplane. Each header connector may be electrically coupled to a right-angle connector, which may be electrically coupled to a daughter card, for example. The daughter cards may be oriented orthogonally to one another. For example, the daughter card on one side of the midplane may be oriented horizontally and the daughter card on the opposite side of the midplane may be oriented vertically.
Right-angle connectors are often used to electrically couple PCBs in orthogonal applications. Right-angle connectors may have electrical contacts that define one or more angles. The length of each electrical contact may depend on its respective location in the connector and on the number and/or degree of its angles. Consequently, some or all of the electrical contacts in the right-angle connector may have different lengths. This may cause the end-to-end propagation time of each electrical contact to vary, thereby resulting in signal skew.
Signal skew may be problematic for applications that rely on differential signals, for example. In such applications, a differential signal may be carried on two conductors (i.e., a differential signal pair of electrical contacts). The signal value may be the difference between the individual voltages on each conductor. If the end-to-end propagation time on one conductor is shorter or longer than the other, the signals on each conductor may be skewed. Thus, right-angle connectors may exhibit an undesirable level of signal skew and may be unsuitable for applications that utilize differential signals, for example.
It many connector applications, it is also often desirable to increase the signal contact density of the connector in order to reduce connector size. In addition, it may be desirable to minimize the level of signal reflection that can result when the connector is electrically coupled to a PCB. Signal reflection may occur when the differential impedance between the electrical contacts in a differential signal pair is not matched to the system impedance. Furthermore, signal reflection may occur when there are variations in differential impedance along the length of the electrical contacts.
Therefore, a need exists for a high-density orthogonal connector with electrical contacts that exhibit minimal signal skew and signal reflection.